a) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the production of a novel beer-like sparkling alcoholic beverage which may preferably have a sake flavor or a fruit wine flavor. As a general trend of these days, alcoholic beverages having a high alcohol content and called "hard liquors" are not favored and as typified by the popularity of beer, people incline toward carbonated refreshing alcoholic beverages having a low alcohol content.
The novel alcoholic beverage according to the present invention has both a soft but characteristic flavor and refreshing taste, and is expected to fully satisfy the taste or preference of contemporary consumers. The alcoholic beverage according to the present invention uses, as primary raw materials, an amylaceous (i.e., starchy) raw material such as barley and/or rice and optionally a fruit such as grape or apple. Industrial practice of the present invention is therefore believed to result in a substantial contribution for the stabilization of the basis of agriculture, so that the significance of the present invention in the society is believed to be extremely high.
b) Description of the Related Art
The conventional brewing includes the steps of malting, mashing, preparing wort, wort boiling with hops, and fermentation. In the wort boiling step, a wort is boiled with hops to prepare a bittered wort. After the bittered wort is cooled and filtered, a brewer's yeast is added to the bittered wort for fermentation.
In Japan, beer is stringently controlled under the Liquor Tax Act. Limitations are hence imposed on the usable raw materials and the weight percentage of malt in the raw materials. Further, its production must be carried out by simply adding a brewer's yeast, which has been obtained by axenic culture, to a wort. The flavor of the beer so obtained naturally results in a non-characteristic one without any exceptions. It has therefore been desired to develop a novel beer-like sparkling alcoholic beverage having flavors of plural alcoholic beverages of different kinds.
Sake is a typical traditional alcoholic beverage in Japan and its production includes the steps of preparation of koji, molding rice, as a culture of Aspergillus oryzae on steamed rice, incubation of a mixture of steamed rice, water and koji in a small scale to obtain a preculture "moto" as a starter or a seed mash, repeating addition of a mixture of koji, steamed and then cooled rice and water 3-4 times to the preculture for main fermentation in a large scale. After the main fermentation, the mixture is then pressed and filtered through a press filter. The filtrate is allowed to remain standstill for clarification by precipitation of insoluble materials, and the supernatant is recovered, pasteurized and stored for maturation.
The "moto" is a traditional Japanese word for the preculture as a seed mash in the Sake production process. Among various types of the moto, "kimoto", "yamahaimoto" and "sokujomoto", which are also traditional Japanese words, can be exemplified.
The "kimoto" is a preculture prepared by a traditional process which includes the steps of
i. preparing a mixture of steamed rice, water and koji in each of two or eight small and shallow vats having the same volume, PA1 ii. kneading each mixture into a smooth paste, putting the mixtures from the small and shallow vats together into a big vat, and PA1 iii. allowing the mixture to ferment to obtain the kimoto. PA1 I. adding koji, which has been prepared using a mold selected from the group consisting of yellow Aspergillus and white Aspergillus, to a malt in water to saccharify the malt into a saccharified malt liquor as a wort, and PA1 II. incorporating a yeast-containing output from production of an alcoholic beverage other than beer into the saccharified malt liquor to ferment so as to obtain the beer-like sparkling alcoholic beverage. PA1 A. adding "koji", which has been prepared using a mold selected from the group consisting of yellow Aspergillus and white Aspergillus, to a malt in water to saccharify the malt into a saccharified malt liquor as a wort; PA1 B. incorporating an output from production of an alcoholic beverage other than beer into the saccharified malt liquor to obtain a mixture to be fermented; and PA1 C. inoculating the mixture to be fermented with yeast to ferment the mixture so as to obtain the beer-like alcoholic beverage. PA1 a) the additional use of koji for the saccharification of the malt and; PA1 b) the incorporation of an output(s), i.e., a material(s) or an intermediate product(s) which are used or produced for or during processes for production of an alcoholic beverage (such as Sake or fruit wine) other than beer; in order to impart the characteristic flavor to the beer-like alcoholic beverage.
The yamahaimoto is prepared by the "yamahai process" as a modified process of the above process for the kimoto. In this modified process, the "yamaoroshi step" consisting of the above steps i and ii is omitted and the mixture of steamed rice, water and koji is directly prepared in a big vat.
In the methods of producing the kimoto and yamahaimoto, wild lactic acid bacteria first grow to reduce pH and then yeasts grow.
The sokujomoto is prepared by the lactic-acid-added quick fermentation process as a modified process of the above yahai process. In this modified process, lactic acid and yeast are added to the mixture of steamed rice, water and koji. The mixing of the raw materials is carried out at 18-20.degree. C.
In the process for the production of the preculture moto, rice starch is converted into fermentable sugar by saccharification in the presence of Aspergillus oryzae and the fermentable sugar is converted into ethyl alcohol by yeast. As yeast, either natural yeasts (wild yeasts) in the atmosphere in which vats are placed or pure-cultured yeasts can be used. In general, natural yeasts which tend to enter the vats from the atmosphere are used in the production of the kimoto and the yamahaimoto, i.e., spontaneous fermentation is carried out. A pre-cultured yeast is used for the production of the sokujomoto.
Wine production includes the steps of preparation of a fruit juice and fermentation of the juice. Yeasts are spontaneously inoculated into the fruit juice. Alternatively, a seed culture of a wine yeast is added to the fruit juice. In the spontaneous fermentation, wild yeasts living on the fruit per se or its leaves or branches are mainly used.